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41. Anglers of Men: the Politics of Rescuing African Migrants in the Mediterranean Basin

Author:
Lorenzo Rinelli
Publication Date:
12-2017
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Review of Human Rights
Institution:
Society of Social Science Academics (SSSA)
Abstract:
This article theorizes the dynamics that emerge from the intimate relationship between contemporary African migration, liquid borders, and law around the channel of Sicily, between Italy and Libya. There, in the same waters where Ulysses and Aeneas roamed for years, whose epic journeys are considered foundational within the European identity narrative, today the trajectories that migrants boats traverse are disrupting and shuffling the European geographical limits. As a response, states are enacting a policy of containment that renders African migrants’ presence at sea invisible, while criminalizing human solidarity enacted by private organizations as well as individuals. Making use of a legal discourse analysis I will dig the premises behind the antinomic concept of criminal solidarity that emerges today in Europe as a somehow coherent system of thought, shaped by laws, codes of conduct, rules, and rulings. Specifically, by analyzing the rulings of one tribunal in Sicily, I will make an attempt to expose how rigid conceptions of borders naturalize state’s efforts to define the limits of national territory, while conversely, I will consider how the micropolitics of justice are capable of shaping the contours of discourses on current migration.
Topic:
Human Rights, Migration, Law, Refugees, and Borders
Political Geography:
Africa, Europe, Libya, and Mediterranean

42. Hebrew Sources in the Doctrine of the Law of Nature and Nations in Early Modern Europe

Author:
Charles Leben
Publication Date:
01-2016
Content Type:
Journal Article
Abstract:
This article sets out to re-examine Hebrew sources in the doctrine of the law of nations of the 17th century, from Gentili’s De Jure Belli Libri Tres (although it strictly belongs to the 16th century since it was first published in 1598) to Pufendorf’s De Jure Naturae et Gentium (1672). It incontrovertibly confirms the importance of Jewish sources in the general intellectual education of the founding fathers of international law and in their general political philosophy while limiting their role with respect to the construction of international law in the strict and contemporaneous sense of the term.
Topic:
International Law, Religion, Political Theory, History, Law, and Judaism
Political Geography:
Europe and Mediterranean

43. Empowered or Disempowered? The Role of National Parliaments during the Reform of European Economic Governance.

Author:
Aleksandra Maatsch
Publication Date:
01-2016
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies
Abstract:
This paper investigates how the intergovernmental reform process of European economic governance affected national parliaments’ oversight of this policy area. Which parliaments became disempowered and which managed to secure their formal powers – and why? The dependent variable of the study is operationalized as the presence or absence of “emergency legislation” allowing governments to accelerate the legislative process and minimize the risk of a default by constraining national parliaments’ powers. The paper examines how national parliaments in all eurozone states were involved in approving the following measures: the EFSF (establishment and increase of budgetary capacity), the ESM, and the Fiscal Compact. The findings demonstrate that whereas northern European parliaments’ powers were secured (or in some cases even fostered), southern European parliaments were disempowered due to the following factors: (i) domestic constitutional set-up permitting emergency legislation, (ii) national supreme or constitutional courts’ consent to extensive application of emergency legislation, and (iii) international economic and political pressure on governments to prevent default of the legislative process. Due to significant power asymmetries, national parliaments remained de jure but not de facto equal in the exercise of their control powers at the EU level. As a consequence, both the disempowerment of particular parliaments and the asymmetry of powers among them has had a negative effect on the legitimacy of European economic governance.
Topic:
Politics, Governance, Law, and Reform
Political Geography:
Europe

44. Community, Not Confinement

Publication Date:
10-2015
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Open Society Foundations
Abstract:
The UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) affirms the rights of all people to live in their communities. Yet between 2007 and 2013, EU member states invested millions of euros of EU structural funds into institutions that confine and segregate people living with disabilities. Now, although the 2014–2020 round of structural funds requires member states to introduce domestic deinstitutionalization measues, the danger remains that EU investments in institutions will continue. The European Commission has a responsibility to ensure the rights of Europeans with disabilities and the proper direction of EU investments. Community, Not Confinement examines EU law and policy governing the use of structural funds, and EU and state responsibilities to human rights obligations under international and EU law. This report also recommends several steps the commission should take, including providing clear guidance to member states that projects selected for the use of structural funds must comply with the CRPD; verifying that such programming aligns with the CRPD and supports independent living; and funding civil society to monitor member states’ investments and inform the commission of findings.
Topic:
Human Rights, International Law, United Nations, Law, Disability, Community, Political Rights, and Legal Sector
Political Geography:
Europe

45. WTO 'a la carte' or 'menu du jour'? Assessing the Case for More Plurilateral Agreements

Author:
Bernard M. Hoekman and Petros C. Mavroidis
Publication Date:
04-2015
Content Type:
Journal Article
Abstract:
Plurilateral agreements in the context of the World Trade Organization (WTO) allow sub-sets of countries to agree to commitments in specific policy areas that only apply to signatories and thus allow for ‘variable geometry’ in the WTO. Plurilateral agreements share a number of features with preferential trade agreements (PTAs), which are increasingly used by governments to liberalize trade in goods and services. This article discusses the current institutional framework that governs these two alternatives and distinguishes them from the general, non-discriminatory agreements that are negotiated among – and apply to – all WTO members. Current WTO rules make it much more difficult to pursue the plurilateral route than to negotiate a PTA. We review the arguments for and against making it easier for ‘issue-specific’ clubs to form in the WTO and discuss how concerns raised by some WTO members regarding the potential negative impact of plurilateral agreements on the multilateral trading system might be addressed. We take the view that action to facilitate the negotiation of plurilateral agreements in the WTO should be considered and that the potential downsides for the multilateral trading system can be managed.
Topic:
Economics, Political Economy, World Trade Organization, and Law
Political Geography:
Europe and Italy

46. The Hybrid Legal-Scientific Dynamic of Transnational Scientific Institutions

Author:
Oren Perez
Publication Date:
04-2015
Content Type:
Journal Article
Abstract:
The objective of the present article is to develop a better understanding of the institutional dynamic of transnational regulatory scientific institutions (RSIs). RSIs play a significant role in the transnational regulatory process by mediating between the scientific community and policy-making bodies. I argue that RSIs have a hybrid structure involving both political-legal and epistemic authority. The hybrid structure of RSIs – their capacity to exert both normative and epistemic authority – constitutes an innovative response to the demand of modern society for scientific certainty and to the scarcity of normative power in the international domain. This hybrid nature has a triple structure involving three complementary pairs: law~science, law~non-law and science~pseudoscience. I examine the way in which RSIs cope with the challenge of maintaining their epistemic and legal authority against the tensions generated by their hybrid structure. The discussion of hybrid authority is related to the problem of scientific uncertainty. I examine this theoretical argument drawing on an in-depth analysis of three RSIs that reflect the institutional diversity of the RSI network: the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection and the European Committee of Homeopaths. I conclude with a discussion of some of the policy issues associated with the institutional design of RSIs. The policy discussion refers, first, to the risk posed by RSIs’ hybrid structure to their internal stability and, second, to some potential adverse social impacts that need to be considered alongside RSIs’ projected benefits.
Topic:
International Law, Science and Technology, Law, and Regulation
Political Geography:
Europe and Italy

47. Determining Customary International Law: The ICJ's Methodology between Induction, Deduction and Assertion

Author:
Stefan Talmon
Publication Date:
04-2015
Content Type:
Journal Article
Abstract:
Methodology is probably not the strong point of the International Court of Justice or, indeed, of international law in general. Unlike its approach to methods of treaty interpretation, the Court has hardly ever stated its methodology for determining the existence, content and scope of the rules of customary international law that it applies. There are only isolated references in the Court’s jurisprudence to the inductive and deductive method of law determination. It is not only the Court itself that has largely remained silent on its methodology for the determination of customary international law, but the legal literature also has had little to say on this subject. In view of the fact that determining the law has also always meant developing, and ultimately creating, the law it is surprising that the question of the Court’s methodology has attracted such little interest. This article aims to refocus attention on the methodology used by the Court when determining the rules of customary international law that it applies, and it highlights the role played by methodology in the development of customary international law. It starts by defining the terms ‘induction’ and ‘deduction’ and examining their use by the Court. It then explores the situations in which the Court uses inductive and deductive reasoning, the different forms and functions of deduction and the relationship between the two methods. The article challenges the various theories distinguishing between inductive and deductive custom and demonstrates that the main method employed by the Court is neither induction nor deduction but, rather, assertion.
Topic:
International Law, Law, Legal Theory, and Courts
Political Geography:
Europe and The Hague

48. Reconceptualizing Implementation: The Judicialization of the Execution of the European Court of Human Rights Judgments

Author:
Helen Keller and Cedric Marti
Publication Date:
10-2015
Content Type:
Journal Article
Abstract:
This article proposes a shift of perspective concerning the implementation of European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) judgments. Acknowledging that implementation of the Court’s judgments is primarily of a political and domestic nature, the authors argue that the process has become increasingly internationalized and judicialized by the ECtHR in recent years. Taking a broad, three-tiered perspective that distinguishes between the pre-judgment stage, the judgment itself and the post-judgment stage, the authors analyse the means by which the ECtHR has engaged in implementation of its judgments and explore the benefits of judicialization in this area to secure a key aspect in guaranteeing effective protection and the long-term future of the European Convention on Human Rights system, namely full and timely judgment compliance.
Topic:
Human Rights, International Law, Law, and Courts
Political Geography:
Europe and France

49. Saving the Scarecrow

Author:
André Nollkaemper
Publication Date:
10-2015
Content Type:
Journal Article
Abstract:
This brief Comment responds to Jan Klabbers’ recent article, ‘The Transformation of International Organizations Law’. It focuses on three points: the polemical style and disengagement with substance in the article; the question of whether we can do without some form of functionalism; and the further question of what it means to speak of ‘responsibility beyond functionalism’.
Topic:
International Law, International Organization, Law, and Critique
Political Geography:
Europe and Global Focus

50. TESEV’s Suggestion: Anti-Corruption Legislation and International Acquis

Author:
R. Bülent Tarhan
Publication Date:
01-2014
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Turkish Economic and Social Studies Foundation (TESEV)
Abstract:
This comprehensive work has been prepared by Prime Minister’s Chief Inspector Bülent Tarhan and contains all related UN and OECD documents, government of Republic of Turkey’s fight against corruption action plans, decision and circulars of the prime ministry, national programme of Turkey related with undertaking of the EU Legal Acquis related provisions of the Turkish law, EU Progress reports, GRECO Turkey Reports, all anti-corruption laws and GNAT Corruption Investigation Commission Report as well as Mr.Tarhan’s article ‘Institutional Foundation of Anti-corruption’. Published by TEPAV (The Economic Policy Research Foundation of Turkey) this work is an extensive source of information to anyone who has been interested in this subject matter. In order to navigate easily in this 1040 page long document, you can click on the titles and sub-titles in the summary of contents. This work has only been published in Turkish.
Topic:
Corruption, Law, European Union, Courts, Accountability, Transparency, and Justice
Political Geography:
Europe, Turkey, and Middle East